Indigenous Paddy Varieties under SRI and Conventional Practices: A Performance Study

Assessing and documenting the experiences of various organizations and farmers with regard to on-site yield performance of IPVs under SRI, this study, commissioned by NCS, identifies specific areas for future action in research and policy on the subject.

Context And Objective

T his study was commissioned by National Consortium of SRI (NCS) to assess and document the experiences of various organizations and farmers with regard to the onsite yield performance of Indigenous Paddy Varieties (IPVs) under SRI. IPVs or folk rice are cultivars that are native to areas with a long traditional history of farming. The results of the study will help identify, test and improve the potential of IPVs under SRI so as to bring them into common use and to promote their in situ conservation.:

An objective of the study was to develop a database of IPVs that show promising performance in production under SRI and conventional systems. Another was to develop appropriate methods, tools of data compilation and analysis of an in situ assessment of the comparative yield performance of indigenous varieties. Compiling farmers’ perspectives on the subject, the study was conducted across different regions and ecosystems with 24 organizations in six states using IPVs. These organizations were selected in consultation with NCS and other field practitioners.

Management Systems—Paddy

In this study, four different management systems were found, namely—SRI, Single Plant Transplant (SPT), traditional systems of transplant and direct seeded. Table 1 cites the salient features of these management systems.